DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0064
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Appendix B
Sicily
Mount Aitne1.
nowhere steep. It conducts by a succession of slopes and terraces to the culminating
ridge, which is itself of considerable length, and comprises at least half a dozen points of
rock, all within twenty feet of the highest point. There is a cairn of stones at the last of
these, and the remains of an altar dedicated to Jupiter Enos. Numerous fragments of
calcined bones have been taken from the ground at the foot of the altar, where there
seems to be a large deposit. This point is not really the highest, being a little to the east
of it and ten or fifteen feet lower; the culminating point is about 5,400 feet above the sea.
The view from this summit when everything is favourable must be exceedingly grand, as,
except the Pindus range which is distant, there is nothing to intercept the view. All
around is a rich panorama of islands : Zante at one's feet in all its elegant beauty of form;
Ithaca to the east; beyond it a silver strip of ocean, and then the gulf of Patras, which is
seen in all its length to the bay of Lepanto, in the vicinity of Corinth. Athens is not
much further in the same direction. A noble chain of snowy mountains shuts in this view
towards the south east. Looking down in the direction of Argostoli a minute speck is
seen in the water. On the island called Atos (Thios), that looks so small, was once a
temple to the father of the gods, and when sacrifice was offered and the smoke was seen
by the priests stationed at the altar on this summit, another sacrifice was here made, and
the curling incense rising from this lofty point in the thin air was a sign, far and wide, of
the completion of the offering. Here above remain the stones of the altar and the burnt
bones of the bulls and the goats ; there below, at a distance of several miles, the more
solid and beautiful temple is gone—not one stone remains upon another, and there is
nothing but the stoiy, probable enough for that matter, to connect the two localities.'
1 Aitne, the greatest volcano of the ancient world, rises to a height of 10,758 ft
(according to the geodetic survey of 1900) and covers not less than 460 square miles, its
base being about 90 miles in circumference (K. Baedeker Southern Italy and Sicily16
Leipzig 1912 p. 423. For full details see W. Sartorius Freiherr von Waltershausen Der
Aetna herausg. von A. von Lasaulx Leipzig 1880 i. ii.).
On the sea-coast at the southern foot of Mt Aitne lay the old town of Katane. And
when in 476/5 B.C. Hieron i drove out its inhabitants, settled in their stead 5000 Syracusans
with 5000 Peloponnesians, and renamed the place Aitne (Diod. 11. 49), he seems to have
erected there a statue of Zeus Alrvaios and instituted a festival called Mtvolol (schol. Pind.
01. 6. 162a ev rrj Atrvy Atos AiTvaiov &ya\p,a 'idpvrai, /cat eopri) Alrvala /caXetrat, ib. 162 c
TrepLewei Se /cat deparrevei 6 lepuv /cat to Kpdros rod Atos rod Kara rrjv Airvrjv tl/j.w/j.evov,
schol. Pind. Nem. 6 Atos eveKev rov ev rrj Airvy Att yap dvaKeirai /cat ouros 6 dyuv ev
yap rrj Acrvr; Atos iepbv iari, ib. 7 ev r<2 dyCovL /cat ev rrj iravriyvpei rov Airvaiov Atos rjyov
ot 7rept tov 'lepuva rous ewl rots o~re<pavirais ayG>o~i irewoinjfievovs eiriviKOVs /cat fi$ov. /c.r.X.).
Accordingly Pindar, in odes composed soon after Hieron's new foundation, dwells on the
recently established cult {Nem. 1. 6 Tirjvbs Airvaiov %aptf, 01. 6. 96 Tirjvbs Airvaiov Kpdros,
Pyth. 1. 29 b ZeO, ... | os rovr ecpeweis opos, /c.r.X., cp. 01. 4. 6 w Kpovov -/rat, 6s Airvav
exeis /c.r.X.). In 461 B.C. the settlers at Katane, driven out in their turn by Douketios
and his Sikeloi, captured the Sikel town Inessa (S. Maria di Licodid) on the south-
western slope of the mountain and transferred to it the name of Hieron's settlement Aitne
(Diod. 11. 76) ; but whether they transferred thither the cult of Zeus Alrvaios also we do
not know. Perhaps they did, for in Roman times it seems to have been widely spread.
E. Ciaceri Culti e miti nella storia delVantica Sicilia Catania 1911 pp. 34b, 145 f- cp. Diod.
34. 10 on r\ avyK\y]ros 5eio~i5at.fAovovo~a ei;aTreo~rei\ev els ^iKeXlav irepl rovs ^l{3vWt]S xP7lcrfJ'ous
Kara St/3i'XXta/c6f Xoyiov • ot 5£ iTre\86vres Kad' oXrjV ttjv St/ceXtaf rovs r<2 Alrvalu: Att
Kadi5pvfxe'vovs ffwfiovs dvaidcravTes, /cat irepLtppdynara iroirjaavres, afidrovs diredeltcvvov rovs
tottovs tt\t)v rots ^%01/crt Kad' eKacrrov TroXlrev/jLa Trarpiovs Oveiv dvaias.
The cult at Katane-Aitne is attested by coins of the town, issued from shortly before
476 to shortly before 461 B.C. Silver litrai have obv. the head of a bald Silenos, rev. a
thunderbolt with two curled wings and the legend KATA NE often abbreviated {Brit.
Appendix B
Sicily
Mount Aitne1.
nowhere steep. It conducts by a succession of slopes and terraces to the culminating
ridge, which is itself of considerable length, and comprises at least half a dozen points of
rock, all within twenty feet of the highest point. There is a cairn of stones at the last of
these, and the remains of an altar dedicated to Jupiter Enos. Numerous fragments of
calcined bones have been taken from the ground at the foot of the altar, where there
seems to be a large deposit. This point is not really the highest, being a little to the east
of it and ten or fifteen feet lower; the culminating point is about 5,400 feet above the sea.
The view from this summit when everything is favourable must be exceedingly grand, as,
except the Pindus range which is distant, there is nothing to intercept the view. All
around is a rich panorama of islands : Zante at one's feet in all its elegant beauty of form;
Ithaca to the east; beyond it a silver strip of ocean, and then the gulf of Patras, which is
seen in all its length to the bay of Lepanto, in the vicinity of Corinth. Athens is not
much further in the same direction. A noble chain of snowy mountains shuts in this view
towards the south east. Looking down in the direction of Argostoli a minute speck is
seen in the water. On the island called Atos (Thios), that looks so small, was once a
temple to the father of the gods, and when sacrifice was offered and the smoke was seen
by the priests stationed at the altar on this summit, another sacrifice was here made, and
the curling incense rising from this lofty point in the thin air was a sign, far and wide, of
the completion of the offering. Here above remain the stones of the altar and the burnt
bones of the bulls and the goats ; there below, at a distance of several miles, the more
solid and beautiful temple is gone—not one stone remains upon another, and there is
nothing but the stoiy, probable enough for that matter, to connect the two localities.'
1 Aitne, the greatest volcano of the ancient world, rises to a height of 10,758 ft
(according to the geodetic survey of 1900) and covers not less than 460 square miles, its
base being about 90 miles in circumference (K. Baedeker Southern Italy and Sicily16
Leipzig 1912 p. 423. For full details see W. Sartorius Freiherr von Waltershausen Der
Aetna herausg. von A. von Lasaulx Leipzig 1880 i. ii.).
On the sea-coast at the southern foot of Mt Aitne lay the old town of Katane. And
when in 476/5 B.C. Hieron i drove out its inhabitants, settled in their stead 5000 Syracusans
with 5000 Peloponnesians, and renamed the place Aitne (Diod. 11. 49), he seems to have
erected there a statue of Zeus Alrvaios and instituted a festival called Mtvolol (schol. Pind.
01. 6. 162a ev rrj Atrvy Atos AiTvaiov &ya\p,a 'idpvrai, /cat eopri) Alrvala /caXetrat, ib. 162 c
TrepLewei Se /cat deparrevei 6 lepuv /cat to Kpdros rod Atos rod Kara rrjv Airvrjv tl/j.w/j.evov,
schol. Pind. Nem. 6 Atos eveKev rov ev rrj Airvy Att yap dvaKeirai /cat ouros 6 dyuv ev
yap rrj Acrvr; Atos iepbv iari, ib. 7 ev r<2 dyCovL /cat ev rrj iravriyvpei rov Airvaiov Atos rjyov
ot 7rept tov 'lepuva rous ewl rots o~re<pavirais ayG>o~i irewoinjfievovs eiriviKOVs /cat fi$ov. /c.r.X.).
Accordingly Pindar, in odes composed soon after Hieron's new foundation, dwells on the
recently established cult {Nem. 1. 6 Tirjvbs Airvaiov %aptf, 01. 6. 96 Tirjvbs Airvaiov Kpdros,
Pyth. 1. 29 b ZeO, ... | os rovr ecpeweis opos, /c.r.X., cp. 01. 4. 6 w Kpovov -/rat, 6s Airvav
exeis /c.r.X.). In 461 B.C. the settlers at Katane, driven out in their turn by Douketios
and his Sikeloi, captured the Sikel town Inessa (S. Maria di Licodid) on the south-
western slope of the mountain and transferred to it the name of Hieron's settlement Aitne
(Diod. 11. 76) ; but whether they transferred thither the cult of Zeus Alrvaios also we do
not know. Perhaps they did, for in Roman times it seems to have been widely spread.
E. Ciaceri Culti e miti nella storia delVantica Sicilia Catania 1911 pp. 34b, 145 f- cp. Diod.
34. 10 on r\ avyK\y]ros 5eio~i5at.fAovovo~a ei;aTreo~rei\ev els ^iKeXlav irepl rovs ^l{3vWt]S xP7lcrfJ'ous
Kara St/3i'XXta/c6f Xoyiov • ot 5£ iTre\86vres Kad' oXrjV ttjv St/ceXtaf rovs r<2 Alrvalu: Att
Kadi5pvfxe'vovs ffwfiovs dvaidcravTes, /cat irepLtppdynara iroirjaavres, afidrovs diredeltcvvov rovs
tottovs tt\t)v rots ^%01/crt Kad' eKacrrov TroXlrev/jLa Trarpiovs Oveiv dvaias.
The cult at Katane-Aitne is attested by coins of the town, issued from shortly before
476 to shortly before 461 B.C. Silver litrai have obv. the head of a bald Silenos, rev. a
thunderbolt with two curled wings and the legend KATA NE often abbreviated {Brit.